> Step by step

1. Recreating the classic Doctor Who sting with ring modulation

1 The ‘sting’ that kicks off the Doctor Who theme song makes a great transition effect. You can recreate it using almost any analogue-style softsynth with a ring modulator – we’re going to make it with Reason’s Subtractor. Load an instance of Subtractor into your rack and reset the device to initialise it.

2 Let’s dial in a blend of oscillator tones first. Seeing as we’ll need two sound sources for the ring modulator to work, go ahead and turn on Oscillator 2. Set Osc 1 to a square wave and leave 2 at the default Triangle. Set the Mix dial to 2 o’clock to slightly favour Osc 2.

3 This sounds pretty vanilla, so let’s go further. Set the Phase Mode of Oscillator 1 to multiply, or X. This helps add extra harmonics. Then adjust the Phase of Oscillator 1 to about 1 o’clock. Press the Ring Mod button to engage ring modulation, to combine the sum and difference of the two oscillators. That’s a bit more like it!

4 Our sound isn’t full-on Doctor Who sting madness yet – the timbre is a little dark, so open Filter 1’s Frequency a little and add a touch of Resonance for bite – not too much, though, as we don’t want to overwhelm the effect.

5 Our sting is missing something… a pitch drop! Turn up the Mod Envelope amount to about 12 o’clock, so the modulation envelope affects Osc 1. Raise the Decay slider to about 90. Now we’re getting somewhere! Play with Mod Envelope settings to create different changes in pitch modulation.

6 For even more madness, use LFO 2 to affect the phase by increasing its Amount knob to taste. Raise the Delay dial so the LFO effect comes in gradually. Lastly, hit the Mod Envelope’s Polarity button to change your sting into a retroinspired riser.